The problem is to retrieve the letter, since the writer and the victim, as well as Minister D -, have important posts in the government the demands he is making are becoming dangerous politically. The thief is known (Minister D - ) and the method is known (substitution viewed by the victim, who dared not protest). In the first part, Monsieur G -, Prefect of Police in Paris, visits Dupin with a problem: A letter has been stolen and is being used to blackmail the person from whom it was stolen. "The Purloined Letter" emphasizes several devices from "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and adds several others. Finally, more than with most of his stories, this one is told with utmost economy. This is partially due to the fact that there are no gothic elements, such as the gruesome descriptions of dead bodies, as there was in "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." But more important, this is the story that employs most effectively the principle of ratiocination this story brilliantly illustrates the concept of the intuitive intellect at work as it solves a problem logically. Of all of Poe's stories of ratiocination (or detective stories), "The Purloined Letter" is considered his finest.
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